1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a mouth cavity sanitary device for cleaning the mouth cavity or refreshing the mouth cavity by jetting liquid, accumulated in a reservoir thereof, to the mouth cavity through a nozzle thereof by switching on a switch thereof.
2. Prior Art
Hitherto, as shown in FIG. 1, a mouth cavity sanitary device of the type described above has been constituted in such a manner that a reservoir 2 is disposed on a body 1. Furthermore, a handle 4 having a nozzle 5 detachably fastened thereto is connected to the body 1 via a tube 3, the handle 4 which has the nozzle 5 being, for example, as shown in the drawing, stood and held by the body 1. When the mouth cavity sanitary device thus constituted is used, the handle 4 is separated from the body 1 and a cap 6 thereof is removed with the separated handle 4 held by the hand before directing the nozzle 5 to the mouth cavity. Then, a switch 7 disposed close to the hand is switched so as to operate the mouth cavity sanitary device. As a result, liquid enclosed in the reservoir 2 is urged by a pump 8 provided for the body 1 so as to be jetted out from the nozzle 5 through the tube 3. Liquid thus jetted out cleans up the mouth cavity and refreshment is given to the mouth cavity.
However, a mouth cavity sanitary device constituted as described above has been very difficult to be arranged portably and it has therefore been used in a place where a user has gone because of the following reasons:
(1) It is difficult for the portable mouth cavity sanitary device to be formed compact and is necessary for a space for accommodating a battery to be provided
(2) The capacity of the reservoir becomes unsatisfactorily small.
(3) The manufacturing of the portable mouth cavity sanitary device becomes very difficult.
Therefore, an object of the present invention is to provide a mouth cavity sanitary device capable of overcoming the above-described problems, that is, to provide a mouth cavity sanitary device capable of being formed portable so as to be used at a place where a user has gone.
Although omitted from FIG. 1, the motor 9 for operating the pump 8 is, as shown in FIG. 2, supported by a bracket q via a vibration isolating member p made of, for example, rubber so that the transmission of the vibration of the motor 9 to the bracket q is prevented. As a result, the generation of vibrations and noise in the overall body is prevented.
However, in order to perfectly prevent the generation of the vibrations and the noise, each of other elements forming the drive portion, such as gears, cranks and the pump must, as well as, be supported via a vibration isolating member Therefore, the structure becomes excessively complicated and the number of necessary elements becomes excessively large. As a result, the assembling of the device takes a time, the overall cost can undesirably be raised and it becomes difficult to realize a compact device.
Accordingly, another object of the present invention is to provide a vibration isolating and noise eliminating structure for a mouth cavity sanitary device capable of overcoming the above-described problems, that is, to provide a vibration isolating and noise eliminating structure which does not raise the overall cost and enables a compact mouth cavity sanitary device to be realized.
The compact and thereby portable mouth cavity sanitary device which can be used at a place where a user has gone must have improved assembling facility. For example, the discharge side of the pump and the fastening portion of the nozzle must be easily connected to each other.
Therefore, a third object of the present invention is to provide a handy mouth-cavity sanitary device arranged in such a manner that the connection between the discharge side of a pump and the fastening portion of a nozzle can be easily established and the assembling facility can thereby be improved for the purpose of reducing the overall size.
When the overall size of the conventional mouth cavity sanitary device of the type as shown in FIG. 1 is desired to be reduced, its structure must be simplified as much as possible. Therefore, a portion through which liquid is supplied into the reservoir must be constituted simply as much as possible with an excellent appearance maintained.
Accordingly, a fourth object of the present invention is to provide a compact and portable mouth cavity sanitary device arranged in such a manner that the portion through which liquid is supplied to the reservoir is structured simply with an excellent appearance maintained.
According to the conventional mouth cavity sanitary device, liquid enclosed in the reservoir is sucked and urged by the pump so as to be discharged through the nozzle. The liquid urging device of the type described above has been arranged to adjust the pressure of liquid to be discharged through the nozzle by the following means:
(1) The cross sectional area of a liquid passage arranged from the pump to the nozzle is changed
(2) A portion of liquid in the cylinder of the pump is returned to the suction side at the time of urging liquid.
(3) A plurality of nozzles having different apertures are prepared so as to select a proper one from the plurality of nozzles.
(4) The output of the motor for operating the pump is adjusted.
However, the above-described conventional structure arises the following problems.
a. The enlargement of the load of the pump cannot be prevented, causing noise and vibrations. As a result, the durability is deteriorated.
b. The structure becomes complicated excessively.
c. The number of the elements becomes too large.
Therefore, a fifth object of the present invention is to provide a liquid urging device capable of overcoming the above-described problems experienced with the conventional device and the structure of which can be simplified so as to reduce the number of necessary elements thereof and in which the pressure of liquid, to be discharged through the nozzle, can be adjusted.
Hitherto, a nozzle is, as shown in FIG. 3, fastened to a cleaner such as the mouth cavity cleaner in such a manner that an O-ring 102 is fitted within a nozzle fastening portion 104. An end portion 84 of a nozzle 81 is inserted into a nozzle insertion portion 101 and the O-ring 102 is fitted within a groove 100 formed in the outer surface of the end portion of the nozzle 81. Furthermore, as shown in FIG. 4, the nozzle 81, having an O-ring 106 fastened to the lower surface of a nozzle flange 107 secured to the nozzle 81 and having a fastening groove 105 formed in the insertion portion of the nozzle 81, is inserted into a nozzle fastening portion 104 including an elastic fastening portion 109 made of a spring member. The O-ring 106 is brought into close contact with an O-ring fastening portion 108 of the nozzle fastening portion 104. The above-described fastening groove 105 formed in the surface of the nozzle 81 and the elastic fastening portion 109 are fastened to each other so that the nozzle 81 is secured to the nozzle fastening portion 104.
However, the above-described nozzle securing structure of the conventional cleaner shows the following problem:
Since the mouth cavity cleaner is used in such a manner that the nozzle thereof is placed in the mouth cavity, the nozzle is changed for another one whenever a person who uses the mouth cavity cleaner changes. Therefore, the nozzle fastening portion deteriorates in its sealing performance due to wear in proportion to the number of times of the changes of the nozzles.
However, according to the nozzle fixing structure shown in FIG. 3, the O-ring deteriorates excessively. Therefore, the nozzle fastening portion 104 must be decomposed so as to be repaired when the O-ring is maintained or exchanged. As a result, it takes an excessively long time to perform the after service.
Furthermore, the elastic fastening portion 109 for holding the nozzle 81 must be additionally provided for the nozzle securing structure shown in FIG. 4, causing the overall cost to be enlarged.
Therefore, a sixth object of the present invention is to provide a cleaner arranged in such a manner that the nozzle fixing structure thereof is structured simply and its O-ring can be easily maintained or exchanged.
Hitherto, a mouth cavity sanitary device of the type described above has been arranged to comprise a pump for sucking and urging liquid as shown in FIG. 5. Referring to the drawing, a pump case 121 is, for example, constituted by a first, a second and a third pump cases 122, 123 and 124. The first pump case 122 is provided with a cylinder 122a which accommodates a piston 125 in such a manner that the piston 125 can be reciprocated. The second pump case 123 is fastened to the left side of the first pump case 122 when viewed in the drawing, the second pump case 123 being fastened via a valve supporting member 127 which supports a stopper valve 126 in such a manner that the stop valve 126 can be reciprocated. The second pump case 123 is provided with an inlet port 123a and a valve seat 123b for the stop valve 126. On the other hand, the third pump case 124 is fastened to the right side of the first pump case 122 when viewed in the drawing, the third pump case 124 having a discharge port 124a formed therein. Thus, the piston 125 is reciprocated with the stop valve 126 opened/closed so that liquid sucked into the cylinder 122a through the inlet port 123a is discharged through the discharge port 124a.
However, the above-described conventional pump structure shows the following problems:
(1) If air is introduced into the pump case 121, air can be accumulated in the cylinder 122a, causing the liquid discharge pressure to become irregular or the discharge pressure to be lowered.
(2) Since the pump case 121 is constituted by the first, the second and the third pump cases 122, 123 and 124 and the valve supporting member 127 must be provided, the number of the elements becomes excessively large.
(3) If the stop valve 126 cannot return to the close position due to the compression operation performed by the piston 125, the liquid discharge pressure is excessively lowered, causing the pump function to be lost.
Accordingly, a seventh object of the present invention is to provide a pump structure for a mouth cavity sanitary device capable of overcoming the above-described problems experienced with the conventional structure and in which the accumulation of air introduced into the pump case can be prevented, the number of the necessary elements can be reduced, and the problem arises in that the stop valve cannot return to the close position due to the compression operation performed by the piston can be overcome.